Deputy Interior Minister says investigation on cyber threats against TBC Bank underway
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Georgia’s Deputy Interior Minister Natia Mezvrishvili says that an investigation into the cyber threats against TBC Bank has been long underway.
I understand very well that there are questions about when the investigation will end … Naturally I cannot speak in detail due to the interests of the investigation”, Mezvrishvili said.
TBC Bank Founder Mamuka Khazaradze said he had informed the Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia on the cyber-attacks against his bank as soon as his IT crew discovered the source of the attack, including the signal, IP addresses and locations of alleged cyber attackers.
We openly, publicly gave this [information] to the interior ministry. Thus, as I know the investigation is underway and let’s wait for the investigation”, Khazaradhe said today.
Mamuka Khazaradze is the founder of TBC Bank. Photo: TBC Bank's press office
Cyber-attack against TBC Bank
Mamuka Khazaradze first spoke of cyber-attacks against TBC Bank at the parliamentary committee hearing earlier this month. He said the bank was cyber-attacked some months ago and that his IT team could immediately identify IP address and location from where the attack was carried out.
Later this month, Tbilisi-based TV Pirveli unveiled several letters that Khazaradze had sent to the Interior Minister asking Giorgi Gakharia to take the case under his “personal control” for fast and effective investigation.
In one of the letters sent to Minister Gakharia last August, Khazaradze specified to the official that on July 16, 2018, one of his employees received an infected letter on the work e-mail.
He then said the highly-qualified specialists had identified that the attack aimed to infect the bank's computer network with so-called Trojan virus, which could further take entire control on the bank's servers.
Khazaradze also stated in his letter that the IP address belonged to Ltd “Gravity” registered at Rustaveli Avenue #12 in central Tbilisi and which he claimed had various fake accounts and pages in social network.
TBC Bank Founder Mamuka Khazaradze says that he has sent a letter he claimed he received from Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia and which allegedly included threats against him and TBC Bank, to London to be studied, while a copy has been handed to the Georgian Prosecutor’s Office.
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Founder of the Georgian leading bank TBC Mamuka Khazaradze has announced his resignation from the bank’s supervisory council amid a row related to a money-laundering case involving him and another top banker at TBC, Badri Japaridze.
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